The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a federal law enacted in 1970 under the Organized Crime Control Act, designed to target organized crime by allowing prosecutors to charge leaders of criminal enterprises for actions they ordered or assisted others in carrying out. Before RICO, mob bosses and high-level conspirators often escaped punishment because they rarely committed the crimes themselves. RICO changed that by criminalizing patterns of racketeering activity—which can include bribery, fraud, money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion, and other offenses—when they are committed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. To secure a RICO conviction, prosecutors must prove that at least two predicate crimes occurred within a 10-year period and that these crimes were connected to a broader enterprise engaged in illegal conduct.

Over time, RICO has evolved beyond its mafia roots and become a powerful legal tool for tackling white-collar crime, political corruption, and large-scale conspiracies, including corporate fraud, gang networks, and human trafficking rings. It allows not only criminal penalties like prison and asset forfeiture but also civil suits, letting victims sue organizations or individuals who profited from criminal rackets. In recent years, RICO statutes have been used against figures in entertainment, politics, and business, highlighting how the law has expanded to target modern forms of organized exploitation and enterprise-level misconduct.


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